RADIO 2 host Chris Evans took a shine to Lorna Gallacher and treated her to a celebrity-packed break when she arrived for the gig.

But as she slogged her way up the M74 on the morning commute, heading for a meeting in Paisley, everything changed.

First, mum-of-three Lorna, 53, realised that the bloke talking to Chris Evans on her car radio was her husband.

Lorry
driver John had entered a Radio 2 contest the day before, and it turned
out he’d won two tickets to see Emeli Sande play an intimate one-off gig at BBC Broadcasting House in London.

But he was working and couldn’t make it, so he wanted Lorna to go instead.

Lorna
loves Emeli’s music and Chris was all in favour of the idea – he reckoned John was “the nicest man on the radio” for suggesting it.

There was a tiny problem, though. Lorna, of Eastriggs near Gretna, was more than 300 miles away. She was also driving in the wrong direction.

But when Chris phoned her up and Lorna pulled over at Lockerbie to chat live on air, she decided she’d try to make it anyway.

She still needed to get the day off from her job as a manager with Thomas Cook. But that didn’t turn out to be a problem.

Lorna said: “I phoned my boss and she told me she’d heard me on the radio and I was to turn around and go.

“But I’d already arranged the meeting in Paisley, which I had to attend.

“So once that was over, I jumped back in the car and headed back down the M74.”

Lorna
drove to Carlisle station to meet her little sister Claire, 45. Claire bought her Emeli’s album recently, so she reckoned she deserved the second ticket.

Claire, who lives in Cumbria, had arranged train tickets, and they caught the 2.50 to Euston.

Radio 2 afternoon show stand-in host Patrick Kielty updated listeners on the sisters’ progress as they headed south.

Excited pair in VIP seats for BAFTA winner Emeli's gig

And
despite the doubts of a few sceptics who posted on Chris’s Radio 2 Facebook page, Lorna and Claire made it to London, piled into a taxi, hot-footed it to Broadcasting House and got to their seats in plenty of time to see Emeli take the stage.